Hailing a cab in Baguio, being there outside of summer for the first time, and waking up to a foggy hillside view are but a few scenes from my most recent trip to the city one which I wont soon forget.  It was mid-October and freezing, but the city still smelled of the lay summer days that I had spent there as a child.  I dont remember the streets of Session being so congested though, but it was nevertheless still the city I knew and loved.

Rain threatened to spill on the day of my arrival so I proceeded to my designated hotel to recuperate from the seven-hour hike up Marcos Highway.  Summer Place Hotel is a 10-story edifice-on-a-cliff, I said to myself, confirming to my brain what my eyes were seeing.  Then my irrational fear of heights kicked in.  My first instinct was to question how safe a hotel built on a hillside could be.  The hotel was built on the hillside because the hotel structure was designed to be earthquake-proof,  hotel general manger said.  Turns out my question was a silly one since hotels built on hillsides were apparently safer.  Imagine the hotel is like a staircase, or the Rice Terraces.  The front parking area is the floor level and like each step of a staircase, each floor is anchored and locked to the mountain so when there is an earthquake, the movement of the building is minimized and so is its tendency to break or collapse, he added.

But as we ascended into the dining area that was fully decorated for a trial wedding reception that was to happen later that day, all my fears disappeared into the fog overhead.  Massive glass windows framed in steel were slid open to allow the chilly mountain breeze in.  it was the warmest welcome Ive ever had until I came closer to the windows and saw what the hills had in store.  Ive never been much of a view person, but the scenery that I witnessed from Summer Places Buffalo Steak House was what view people might have called breathtaking.

After a hearty lunch of mixed tempura, sizzling garlic steak, lechon manok and ice cream for dessert, I was escorted to the fifth floor where my room was.  We had to go down two levels instead of five up since the hotels ground floor happens to be on the seventh level because of its stairway-like structure.  The confusion that this quirk left people with amused me, and I myself did not get used to it until I was already about to leave.

The room did not disappoint.  According to the gen. Manager, each room is designed differently from the other, from carpet to curtains to bathrooms.  The suites is spacious, with glass double doors that open up to private balconies that overlook the spectacular green mountain views nearby, which captures the heritage of Baguio, rather than a view of overcrowded city.  Mine was a room of peaches and neutrals that were really calming and warming. A green and white room waoud have left me feeling colder so I was very grateful for my rooms color scheme.  He also pointed out how their rooms are bigger than most. You will rarely see a five-star hotel with rooms that have a floor-to-ceiling height of 10 feet and hallways of 11 feet which is what we are very proud to have.

Summer Place Hotel is a three-star hotel currently working toward the five-star status.  Special features like a waterfalls garden, already 50 percent finished, additional rooms, a garden with playground, and a kiddie pool will soon be added to its already impressive roster of function rooms and facilities like the fitness center and spa.  For now, it has 51 rooms, five function rooms that can accommodate 30 to 100 guests, two conference halls for 100 to 300 people, a recreation area with billiards and a kids station.  Four floors on the upper levels are allotted for function rooms and conference halls all of which overlook the mountains, some filled with trees and some with housed like those in Superbook and Flying House, from afar, that is.  Aside from there, we offer an ideal central location for seminars and events.  Our business is to make sure that our guests event is a stand-out success, whether it be a small business meeting or a large conference.  From flexible room layouts to tailored menus, Summer Place creates just the right atmosphere as simple or as technically sophisticated as our guests choose, Gen. Manager said.

Summer Place Hotel is also in thte process of creating a tourist attraction, details of which the general manager refused to reveal.  its going to be a surprise, he said.  I was given a tour that culminated with a veranda scene the view from no less than the presidential suite was a picture perfect sunset, the silhouette of mountains against the deep blue of the sky, the twinkling lights from houses below compensating for the starless expanse above.  It was a perfect ending for a day that was not yet through: u had yet to tour the city and eat street food.

            Sometimes a girl just needs her dose of tasty, ridiculously unhealthy food.  My colleagues and I went out for dinner after coffee, influenced by the inverted floor sequence at the hotel. We ate in one of the carinderias lining Burnham Park, and I ordered inihaw na pusit which I knew was a big mistake as soon as my friends reacted violently at the idea of ordering seafood in the highlands, and as soon as I tasted the inihaw na baboy with the ever-uplifting itlog na maalat with kamatis, sibuyas and talong.  I ended up full anyhow, and was very much ready to put myself to bed.  But my friends wasted coffee once more so we had coffee and dessert at a coffee shop along Session Road.  After what seemed like forever for someone who was cold and sleepy, we finally got out of the restaurant, and hailed a taxi Summer Place, please!  Taxis in Baguio are Tamaraws and Adventures instead of Corollas and Sentras, and the drivers give passengers the exact change.  We got off Marcos Highway and went straight to our rooms.

            Summer Place bathrooms are immaculate.  Gen. Manager said some guests have remarked that they could actually sleep in the comfort rooms.  Though I woundnt exactly do that, I found their bathrooms free of all things icky and so conveniently furnished.  Their single beds are actually queen- to king-size, and their rooms have Fresh Air Intake fans with manual controls, a lifesaver for someone who cant sleep in an air-conditioned room.  Room service is fast and friendly, and the Buffalo Steak House staff are up as early as 5 a.m. to make breakfast and bring it to your room.  I woke up with the Barbies Cradle-sung Nescafe theme song in my head.  I had to sing it, too, because it was exactly how I felt as I drew open the shades and saw the sunny-foggy hillside view.  Feel the warmth the days beginningI hummed.  I ordered tapsilog, corn soup and coffee for breakfast, then checked out and ventured into the city to work. In the middle of shopping and doing a la turista at a four-cornered overpass, I found myself missing the hotel. But I consoled myself in knowing that with Summer Place, the best is yet to come.

            Oh, and I could be there all summer.